Illinois Central Zone [Archive]

SoILKiller

10-29-2006, 12:16 PM

Just wanting to get some feedback from anyone in the Illinois central zone. I went out Sat and Sun and didnt have the best hunts. Four of us came home with 3 mallards and 2 honkers. Although I am in the southwestern corner of the central zone, by St. Louis, I think the three days of continous rain has either kept the ducks out in the fields or pushed them out. Just wondering if anyone has done good. Hopefully it will pickup and I'm looking forward to the southern zone opening up. Good luck to everyone and on a sidenote, this is only my second or third post and I just want to say how impressed I am with the feedback that I receive and the overall info sharing and BS'ing.

SMOKE

10-29-2006, 08:36 PM

our group killed 16 on saturday and 3 on sunday no honkers either day

SMOKE

11-04-2006, 06:29 PM

got out today killed 8 4 greenheads, mallard hen, gadwall, greenwing teal drake, reddy duck. LOTS AND LOTS OF MALLARDS around. reall really need to invest in a digital camera one of them mallards was huge.

SMOKE

11-05-2006, 10:17 PM

sunday group results 2 greenheads 1 ringneck 1 red head 1 wood duck drake 4 reddy ducks. i shot absolutely terrible all weekend not sure whats goin on. today was extremly slow we were deligated to shootin coots in the afternoon lol. had honkers actually work the lake today as well but gotta wait now till the 28 before we can get back on them. hopefully migration starts soon im ready for some layout huntin :twisted:

SoILKiller

11-05-2006, 10:32 PM

I went out Sunday and came home with 2 mallard drake and 2 spoonbill hens. It was kind of a slow day but in the end it turned out pretty good.

dux_99

11-06-2006, 07:45 AM

my group went out to the cooling lakes up around Seneca yesterday afternoon (11/5/06) and it took us about an hour to get 20 greenheads and 3 blacks. There was 5 of us in the field. It was crazy the amount of ducks using that area up there for this early in the year.

Max4Gooser

11-06-2006, 11:49 AM

Been out twice last week, 1st day we killed 4 honks, yesterday we hunted a public lake, and had a ton of competition, I had 7 blinds within 2-300 yards incircling me, we had a bunch of mallards land short of the decoys and sit for long periods of time, but nothing we could shoot at, We did have a Speck try to land on us but my fidgety 7y.o. boy flaired him like you wouldn't believe, before I could get a gun up. He then flew 300 yards down the lake and got killed at anothers blind. Oh well, hopefully we will do a little better later this week.

SMOKE

11-06-2006, 10:18 PM

gooser what public lake where you at man?

Max4Gooser

11-06-2006, 11:55 PM

We where hunting Sangchris. It is a great lake to hunt, but a lot of pressure their.

SMOKE

11-07-2006, 03:28 AM

i know the feelin we got probably 4 blinds all about the same distances around us too. one blind was shootin way high and wide this weekend and it was screwin us over pretty bad but unfortunately thats the kinda crap u deal with hunting public lakes.

mlgorecki

11-07-2006, 06:20 AM

We have the same problem up here at Wolf Lake (William Powers State Wildlife Area) in the north zone. My partners and I have an open water blind in about the best location on the lake. The problem is, unless you're there by yourself during the week, the ducks will get "sky-busted" before they make it out to the middle :evil:

I think they need to start a ten shell possession limit up here.

If these idiots would let the birds work and decoy in, evryone would go home happy.

SMOKE

11-07-2006, 06:33 PM

lol got a phone call tonight from a friend sayin he had sources sayin we were sky busting and shootin wide out of the blind this weekend and i couldnt help but laugh. got a pretty good idea who his sources were too cant wait till im out there huntin and they shoot high and wide like normal :lol: im really startin to get sick of public hunting for this reason entirely. when other blinds arent killin ducks the blinds who are are always blamed for shootin swingers or skybusting.

DUman84

11-07-2006, 07:33 PM

yep up here on illinois river opening weekend we had some skybusters that were messing everything up for us, they were sky busting at birds that were swing around in the middle of the channel to work us, and they would sky bust and they were gone, i was real mad, this past weekend both saturday and sunday, are ducks seem to just picked up and left, no sign of duck life on the illinois last saturday and sunday, ended up with like 7 birds all weekend, it was real slow, might be going out tommorow to see whats up

SMOKE

11-07-2006, 07:46 PM

one of the so called "sky busters" hunted the blind today with 3 buddies and killed 18 ducks. greenhead count was 13 :o . im headin to a different place tomorrow to hunt. i know a certain member (H-unit) knows the place very well. its called IRB. they have flooded corn and pits so it should be a good time. duman where do u hunt at?

DUman84

11-07-2006, 08:06 PM

i hunt the illinois river in marseilles, have my own blind up here on the river, and we have many spots up and down the river where we hunt out of boat blinds

SMOKE

11-08-2006, 08:47 PM

mlgorecki

11-08-2006, 09:57 PM

Four greenheads and a shoveler... slow day... Man you're spoiled.

I've been getting my ass kicked; four days in a row and didn't even raise my gun. Today I hunted the Momence Wetlands (20 miles east of Kankakee, IL) and didn't see a single duck. The weather has been bad for waterfowl though; mid 60s with continuing winds out of the south. I shouldn' even be going out until the weather changes.

SMOKE

11-08-2006, 09:58 PM

we got another front comin through on friday so i think business will pick back up down here as well.

H-Unit

11-09-2006, 08:03 AM

only hunted till 10 today at IRB and killed 4 greenheads and a shovler. pretty slow day. had some snows and blues work us as well. wasnt even aware they were down but the guy i was huntin with says they been hangin out in the bottoms.

Ah man, why would you hunt there? All they do is sky bust and shoot your swing ducks. The GLADES is where its at man!

SMOKE

11-09-2006, 09:15 AM

haha riiiiiiiiiiiight :roll:

H-Unit

11-09-2006, 09:20 AM

Im serious mang. Last weekend while I was blow drying on my 4' by 4' decal of THE GLADES on the top of my Focus, my nutwood crew came by and said we needed to head down to THE GLADES to hunt. Lemme tell ya, it was awesome. Everyone lets the birds work, no body was shooting swings, and when you were workin a flock, everyone else stopped calling and started cooking breakfast. Yeah it was amazing, lemme tell ya. The best thing was when we busted into a group of about 100 red legs, eveyone else on the lake started clapping for us. It was amazing.

PS. When we went back to the sign in shed, everyone else left us their bands, seemed like they just wanted to show their appreciation for us hunting the GLADES.

Waterfowlhunter2

11-09-2006, 05:07 PM

Opening morning the 28 we had 6 guys and we shot 7 geese. Sun the 29 we had four guys and we shot our limit of 8 geese. http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n42/BandedGoose2/10-28-12.jpg Saturday results.http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n42/BandedGoose2/10-29-6.jpg Sunday results one band

DropEmInDE

11-09-2006, 05:37 PM

i wanna move out west, :cry: :cry: still got 6 days till openning day for honkers, god i cant wait...

kingkilla

11-09-2006, 09:24 PM

DropeminDe, me and iowamigr8er are going to hunt some geese in a corn field this weekend. aw man its going to be so much fun. :P just messen with ya :D but really we are going to shot the piss out of some geese this weekend. ill be thinken of ya when we have our limit

SMOKE

11-09-2006, 10:05 PM

thats cold man

H-Unit

11-10-2006, 10:22 AM

HMPH! I guess my five blinds at the GLADES are full tomorrow, so imma gonna have to hunt that ol stinkin IRB. Im really depressed now. :( I prob wont even bring my gun that place is so terrible. maybe a nice book, though. Any suggestions??

Waterfowlhunter2

11-10-2006, 11:04 AM

yea come north my group is lookin for another shooter.

H-Unit

11-10-2006, 11:26 AM

If you hunt in Momence, then that is NORTH, and also vewy vewy goosey! How is your season soo far?

Waterfowlhunter2

11-10-2006, 02:37 PM

we are almost on the line between the north zone and the central zone. Take a look at the pics i posted earlier in this post. We killed 7 on opening day and 8 on the following day. Last weekend we killed 3 geese on the river along with a fat ole greenhead and a greenwing teal.

SMOKE

11-10-2006, 02:57 PM

h-unit talk to Funk hes got some good readin material in his pit out there :D

H-Unit

11-10-2006, 04:24 PM

I got a couple buddies that hunt up in Braidwood, its murder central up there! gonna go up with the trailer, thinkin first week of december.

Oh, and smokey, I bet they got a regular Oprahs book club in there... :lol:

Well I mean, readin in between watchin 20 straight out flat out down right straight up MUUUURDER!